Archive for November, 2009

Flu Followup

Posted on 18. Nov, 2009 by .

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Screen shot 2009-11-18 at 1.34.18 PMSeveral weeks ago I wrote this post asking if others have taken a bigger than normal attendance hit in October. The overwhelming response was “YES!” Of the dozen of people I heard from, all but one or two saw a decrease. Several indicated that October was not usually a down month and for those who usually saw a decrease in October, this year’s decrease was significant.

So, we’ve hit our problem head on. People get sick and there isn’t usually a lot you can do about it. They’ll get better and they’ll come back. However, at Gateway we’re reaching a demographic of people who might easily get into a habit of not coming due to sickness and have trouble getting back into that rhythm of coming once all is well again. It’s just the people we’re targeting. So here’s what we’ve done.

1. Phone call and email blitz. In Fellowship One, I ran this report. It essentially told me who my regular kids were and which ones were missing in October. It told me what the last service/room/date they attended. I had Fellowship One modify the form to give me cell numbers and email addresses of both moms and dads. We then sent this information on to our small group leaders and room leaders to call all the families that have been missing. The good news is that their absences has been for reason we expected… sickness.

2. Create some holiday momentum. Our Children’s Ministry has always been a selling point for our families. Generally the kids really love Kids Quest. We felt we just needed to remind the families and kids and do something a little special to get them interested in coming back soon. So we announced something we’re calling “Crazy Countdown to Christmas.” Essentially it’s some crazy Christmas fun wrapped around some fun Christmas styled games, five weeks of “crazy sock contests” and a great angle tree-like outreach to families in need in our community.

3. Promotion. Now that we have identified who is missing and why they’re missing and something new and fun to promote, we’re exhausting all our avenues of communication to get the word out. Kids don’t want to miss Kids Quest this holiday season. First we designed this postcard. I’ve got about 2000 cards to distribute to every child who attends the next few weeks. In addition, I’ve mailed this postcard to any child who has attended Gateway two or more times in the past 6 months. I really would have liked to sent this to every kid, but I didn’t have the budget for that. In addition, we have an email blitz this week, sending an email to the parents of every child who’s attended Gateway this last year letting them know about our Crazy Christmas Countdown.

So, we’ll see what happens. This campaign really isn’t very outward focused. it’s more of an effort to reconnect with those who have disconnected due to the flu. Again, there isn’t much we can do about the flu. If families are sick, we really don’t want them back (yet). However, this might help us recapture those who’ve gotten out of the habit.

The question I’m asking myself is, “how do we measure success?” We know that in October we were down 6% from last year where normally we are up 12-15%. Again, so many people are still battling the flu, we may not know the degree of success. Our attendance could go back up on it’s own even without these efforts. However, we’ll take a look at the numbers and see if we can determine anything that stands out.

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Domain for sale

Posted on 18. Nov, 2009 by .

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domain_for_saleI have a chidlren’s ministry domain that I’ve been hanging on to for several years that I think I’m going to let go of. Four years ago I bought www.childrensministryonline.com and www.childrensministryexchange.com for future sites. Originally I thought I might build a website geared toward resources and ideas which I thought I’d call “the exchange.” However, this blog developed first and childrensministryonline seemed to fit better.

So, I don’t really have any plans for  www.childrensministryexchnage.com. Got an idea for a great new kidmin site? This domain is now officially for sale. Shoot me an email at kenny@childrensministryonline.com if you’re interested.

I just renewed it for another year, so if I don’t get any serious offers, I’ll likely just hang on to it for a little longer.

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More social media factoids

Posted on 15. Nov, 2009 by .

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A few months ago I posted this video about the power of social media. Then a few weeks ago I found the video below from David Wakerly’s blog. I’m probably just preaching to the choir here, but this social media thing is a pretty big deal. Are you utilizing all it has to offer for your ministry?

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-15

Posted on 15. Nov, 2009 by .

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Powered by Twitter Tools

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Random design question

Posted on 15. Nov, 2009 by .

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Okay, my design question isn’t really random, it just doesn’t have anything to do with kids or church ministry.

My parents own their own tax business. They’ve been a part of a franchise for the last 5-6 years, but now they’re out on their own. They’ve selected their name, but now they’re working with a design company to develop their logo. They’ve got several really good options on the table and they’re needing to select one concept that they’re going to take further. My good friend Matt McKee had some really good advice that I think they’ll take into consideration in the revision process. However, I wanted to get some feedback from a general audience as well. Most of the readers of this site aren’t in the “tax business” but everyone has to pay taxes. So, as a general tax payer, which of these concepts do you connect with most.

Oh, let me give you the context. The franchise my parents were with last had a logo that was Red, White and Blue. Matt asked if my folks were doing taxes or running for office! :) My parents have a strong presence in their city and felt it was good to incorporate those same colors to continue to connect with their previous clients although their name has changed. Their company is in South Georgia in the same town as a large Air Force base with many military clients, which also is reason for the star and the patriotic colors.

Okay, now that you know the context, what do you think? What would stand out the most to you as someone looking for a company to do your taxes?

Option 1:

tax1

Option 2:

tax2

Option 3:

tax3

Option 4:

tax4

Option 5:

tax5

So what do you think? What option do you like and why? What would you revise to the option you like?

BTW, you may say “I wouldn’t really know about this because I got to a CPA for my taxes.” If that’s you, you’re probably paying too much to have your taxes done. Clergy taxes are more complicated and unfortunately CPA’s are usually better equipped to handle our taxes, but we pay for it in the end. My parents are experts in tax law, especially dealing with clergy. So, if you think you’re paying too much to have your taxes done, you should give them a call. Contact me and I’ll connect you with them. Read more about this here.

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Email yourself… in the future!

Posted on 14. Nov, 2009 by .

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Screen shot 2009-11-08 at 12.22.45 PM

Several years I came across this interesting site. Just type yourself an email and mark when you want to receive it. I decided to give it a try. I wrote myself an encouraging email set to be delivered one year into the future. I quickly forgot about the site and service. Then a year later, I was grateful to get such an encouraging email from myself. What a cool little site.

There are all kinds of applications here:

  • Need to remind yourself of something to do in the future. Send yourself an email… in the future.

Okay, that’s about all I could come up with. The site is more about fun than productivity. However, I did think of one other use. When setting goal for the future, type out all the goals and have them emailed to you in 3 months, 6 months and in one year. The email might serve as a great reminder to keep yourself on track.

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Becasue unicorns and rainbows are awesome!

Posted on 13. Nov, 2009 by .

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Ever look at a website and think, “hmmm, something’s missing from this page.”

Have you ever considered that what might be missing are sparkly unicorns and beautiful rainbows? If you have, then www.cornify.com is the site you’ve been looking for. Cornify.com is the #1 unicorn and rainbow service on the web. Here’s how it works.

Go to www.cornify.com.

On the left side of the page is a section called “cornify any website.” Grab the “cornify” link and drag it up to your bookmark toolbar.

Screen shot 2009-11-08 at 11.38.30 AM

Once it is in your bookmark bar, cornify any website you want. Here are a few sites I felt needed some sparkly goodness:

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Here’s my friend Sam’s site. He’s got a great layout, but I didn’t see any unicorns and rainbows. Your welcome Sam! Hey unicorn, watch out for that rocket!

Screen shot 2009-11-08 at 11.44.00 AM

I thought the twitter bird on Jonathan’s site looked a little lonely.

Screen shot 2009-11-08 at 11.44.33 AM

Here’s my favorite kidmin social networking site. Is this too much?

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Crazy Christmas Countdown postcard

Posted on 11. Nov, 2009 by .

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My team and I came up with an emphasis for the holidays called the Crazy Christmas Countdown. Partially it is to provide a little momentum going into the holidays that we lost from our dip in October. We were rushed with the design, but I’m pretty happy how it turned out. I think that if I had a little more time, I would have worked on the back of the card (socks in the circles) at the bottom. They look good, but it still feels a little awkward to me. What do you think? Any thoughts or suggestions?

55x85_postcard_CrazyChristmas_5(4)

55x85_postcard_CrazyChristmas_back_2(2)

I’ll write later about details (like why we’re using this, when we’

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Seven inch USB LCD monitor

Posted on 11. Nov, 2009 by .

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c609_lilliput_mini_usb_monitorI just found this cool little item. I’m not sure what I’d use it for, but it’s freaking cool!

It’s a 7 inch USB monitor that works with Windows and Mac. If you have a desktop machine, you could log it again and have email, chat or whatever running on this extra window. Maybe in our tech booth, we could use it as an extra preview monitor… maybe.

What about you? What would you use this for?

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What’s on my plate

Posted on 09. Nov, 2009 by .

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706619_face‘Tis the season to be crazy busy, huh?

I’ve got several things I’m working on right now, several of which I know I’d like to share on this blog. I find that the things taking up my time tend to be the best topics to write about. Not only does it help me engage better in my work, but it opens up opportunities to get ideas and critiques from others.

It does seem that I’ve very busy right now, but it’s not filled with urgent deadlines of things that need to be ready for this weekend. Rather, it’s the stuff we’re doing next winter, spring and summer. So, here’s a look into my world and the things that have me busy at the moment!

  • Following up with 200 regularly attending  kids who’ve been MIA in in October due to the flu and other issues
  • Planning a Christmas theme (I don’t know what to call it) that will provide some fun momentum heading into the holiday season
  • Nailing down the details for summer camp and launching early bird registration by Black Friday
  • Finalizing our 2010 Calendar (Including all deadlines for promotion and advertising)
  • Developing our system for follow-up in 2010 (First, Second and Third time visitors as well as MIA’s and follow-up to all kids)
  • Finalizing our 2010 budget
  • Preparing to launch a prototype for small group/discipleship in January/February
  • Giving our two day retreat for pre-married couples a complete overhaul

Other than the pre-married retreat, I plan to write about all of these things in the next few weeks. In addition, I have three other things on my heart I’ve been meaning to type out for several months. One involves reaching children in the third world. Another involves the parable of the talents (this one’s been stewing in me for 6-8 months). Finally I have a lot to write about what God is teaching me about faith. I have history (a better word for baggage, right?) with the concept of faith that isn’t entirely biblical and it’s been cool what God has been teaching me.

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